Monday, April 27, 2009

Exercise videos aren't so bad...

First yoga, now exercise videos*?! It started when I wanted to begin doing more stretching outside of yoga class. I picked up Rodney Yee's A.M. Yoga DVD while browsing at Whole Foods, which contains five 20-minute workouts, one for each morning: standing poses, twists, forward bends, backward bends, and hip openers. I was so inspired by my enjoyment of this practice that today I picked up Bollywood Booty, a dance workout to lift (??) and tone one's backside, and Rodney Yee's Back Care Yoga. The first one was much more fun than the back care yoga, which was yoga at a much slower pace than I was used to and involves a chair as a prop. (It seems to basically take the strengthening parts out of various poses that stretch the back and make it so that you don't have to work much to stretch your back.) These videos provide a nice alternative for doing nothing on nights when I come home after the gym is closed. I never thought I'd say this, but exercise videos aren't so bad.

* I would like to note that these videos are a supplement rather than a substitute for my normal workouts. For instance, today I did the two videos after I'd gone for a 4-mile run earlier.